Those people who are working during the night shifts expose their nervous system to a very strong stress, because our daily activities are strongly influenced by luminosity levels and having a sleeping schedule different from the typical light-and-dark pattern is really hard for the body. Our sleep is induced by a hormone called melatonin, the production of which is directly related to the luminosity levels of the environment the person is in. Working at nigh shifts not only makes it harder for you to socialize with people, as you are sleeping when everyone’s awake and visa versa, but it also makes your body struggle its natural drive to get rest during the night. (more…)

If you have experienced problems with falling asleep then the thought that almost people on Earth have them too from time to time should give you a bit of comfort. (more…)

Experts on sleep are converging on Glasgow this September for the annual conference of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS). In celebration, let’s take Scotland as our point of interest for this post. As a country, Scotland has a population of some 5 million hardy souls. Yet, every year sees Scottish doctors hand out some 30 million sleeping pills. Local politicians don’t appear on television often enough to send the country to sleep naturally. (more…)

In the most recent issue of Current Biology, researchers suggest that healthy old people lose some capacity for sleep. The research group at the University of Surrey, UK, recruited 18 participants aged between 60 and 72 years, and 35 participants aged between 18 and 32 years. They were all healthy and none had any problems in sleeping. Their sleep patterns were assessed by self-reporting, and those reports were followed up by formal monitoring overnight in a sleep laboratory. (more…)

The symptoms of insomnia can run the gamut or be as simple as not sleeping enough. There are many ways to find out if you suffer from a sleep disorder or if you have insomnia. Insomnia is a disorder that affects most people who are in their declining years but can affect anyone. Environmental issues, stress, poor diet, and so many other factors can all create underlying stress in your sleep pattern, making it very difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or have the much needed deep sleep for a solid night of rest. (more…)

There are many stories on the internet (and elsewhere) about people who take ambien expecting a good night’s sleep, and then wake up to discover that they have been eating peanut-butter sandwiches during the night — personally, the only way I’d ever eat a peanut-butter sandwich is if I was asleep and then had no memory of it afterwards. Taste is personal. But back to the urban myths. It seems that people have been sleepwaking their way through routine tasks and putting themselves in danger by trying to cook or, worse, driving a car. The FDA, never a body to be panicked into anything, last year required all drugs that are classed as “sedative hypnotics” to carry a warning. It’s a strange kind of warning. It goes, “If you take this drug, don’t walk around when you’re alseep.” But you get the idea. (more…)

In 2006 in the US, the clinical gold standard for insomnia was controlled-release Ambien. Millions of prescriptions a year were and are written. Moving across the Atlantic, the situation is no less “impressive”. According to the latest figures, there are around half a million people in England taking sleeping pills at any one time. The National Health Service records show 820,000 prescriptions are written every month. It is estimated that some 330,000 pills are taken every day. This would make insomnia the most common psychological condition in Britain. (more…)

Perhaps I am growing more cynical, but every time I see a new piece of research only lasting one or two years, I wonder why it stopped early. I suppose it is always a balancing act. If you have a specific hypothesis, evidence for or against should be apparent fairly quickly. (more…)

I am constantly amazed (and sometimes amused) by the “science” of futurology. This is, as the name suggests, the willingness of experts to predict what will happen in the future by applying probabilities and other scientific methods. Basically, it is extrapolation from the current state of affairs and, as such, much beloved of those who engage in the “art” of marketing. (more…)

  Three letters can be deceptively simple. DUI = driving under the influence [of] alcohol or some other substance that prevents you driving safely. In the USA, ambien is the best-selling sleeping pill. So should it be DUIA “driving under the influence of ambien”? In real-world CSI labs around the US, ambien makes the top-ten of most identified “drugs” found in people arrested for traffic offences. Fascinatingly, some drivers claim this was “sleep driving”. (more…)